Nicaragua News Service June 11-17, 1995 Vol. 3, No. 25 by Coleen Littlejohn Major News Stories of the week: 1. Agreement between the branches of government. 2. Small farmers march for land. 3. Workers Front occupies National Assembly. 4. Political problems on Atlantic Coast. 5. UCA students go on strike. 6. Vigilante solutions supported in violations of children. 7. Norwegian ship ran aground off Corinto. 8. Police and Pellas against Subtiava. _______________________________________________________________________ [Correction: last week we referred to "all-important upcoming Paris Club meetings." The sentence should have read "all-important Consultative Group Meetings in Paris." The Paris Club is a debt collection organism of lender nations while the Consultative Group is a organism at the meetings of which donor nations pledge aid to different countries. We apologize for the error.] 1. Agreement between the branches of government. Just in time for the June 19th meeting of the donor community in Paris, an agreement was reached between the National Assembly and the executive branch of the Nicaraguan government. Popular reaction to the news, however, has been extremely limited and the majority of people are still not exactly sure what was agreed upon since the newspapers have only printed partial versions of the story based on the political alliance of each. It does seem certain that much more water must pass under the bridge before there is a true reconciliation between the executive branch and the legislature. Last week's agreement, negotiated by Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo who expressed satisfaction that this stage of the negotiations had been satisfactorily concluded, can be summarized as follows: -The Supreme Court will remove any legal impediments (pending cases) which could prevent the President from promulgation the Constitutional amendments. -The legislature and the executive will agree on candidates for the Supreme Court (the agreement on the candidates themselves was not reached- rather the two parts agreed to agree.) -Early this week the legislature will pass this week a "framework law" although it is not yet clear what this means. Once this law is passed, the President will promulgate the Constitutional amendments and their implementation will begin. -The present structure of the government in terms of number of ministries will remain the same; it only can be changed by consensus between the two branches of government. -The president must submit a law defining the functions of the vice presidency. -The National Assembly will guarantee that the Law Against Nepotism goes into effect after January 8, 1997, thus leaving the door open for the presidential candidacy of Antonio Lacayo. -Both sides agreed to prepare a new Atlantic Coast Autonomy Law and a new law for Municipalities. -The Legislature gives up some of its powers to tax under the amendments and allows the Executive to assume them. (La Prensa, June 17, El Nuevo Diario, June 16) 2. Small farmers march for land. Approximately six thousand small farmers from all over the country participated last week in a march on President Chamorro's office to commemorate "National Agrarian Reform Day" and to demand the immediate legalization of their land. The march was organized by the National Association of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG). The message on the banners carried by the farmers was "With or without a law, the land is ours." Participants in the march included members of the executive committees of UNAG, members of the Nicaraguan Cooperative Federation (FENACOOP), Victor Tirado of the National Directorate of the FSLN, the members of UNAG who are deputies in the National Assembly and ex-members of the Nicaraguan Resistance. Ariel Bucardo, president of FENACOOP, called on members of UNAG and ex-Resistance members not to let their land be stolen. He said that it was necessary to defend it even with their lives. Daniel Nunez, president of UNAG, explained to the crowd that he would be attending the Consultative Group Meeting in Paris not to support the Nicaraguan government's IMF and World Bank-imposed policies, but to demand that these international financial agencies channel their support to the agricultural sector. Nunez also spoke to the hundreds of policemen who were guarding the President's office, reminding them that they were there "thanks to the 7,000 UNAG members and 10,000 peasant Resistance fighters who had lost their lives in the war." (Barricada, June 17) 3. Workers Federation occupies National Assembly. Meanwhile, property rights are also the issue behind the peaceful occupation of the National Assembly by workers and union leaders of the National Workers' Front (FNT). The occupiers have stated that they will not evacuate the National Assembly until the government presents a solution to the property problem and answers other union demands. They also requested that the police not try to evacuate them with force, stating that "that action could provoke regrettable incidents." Lucio Jimenez, Secretary General of the FNT and a participant in the sit-in since the first day, stated that the occupiers were ready for any possible police action. Police have surrounded the whole government complex which includes not only the National Assembly, but the also the President's office and the Olaf Palme Convention Center. Jimenez, the only FNT leader who is accompanying the protest of the union members and demobilized army members, stated that the occupation of the Assembly was done in a peaceful manner and that the occupiers will be staying indefinitely because the leadership of the National Assembly has shown no interest in resolving the pending property question nor have they shown any interest in dialoguing with the protesters. Luis Humberto Guzman, President of the National Assembly has not yet called for the police to intervene. He has ordered all administrative personnel to go home and has convened National Assembly meetings on the campus of the Catholic University (UNICA), where protesters have also been staging demonstrations. (Barricada, June 17) 4. Political problems on the Atlantic Coast. A political fight is brewing on the Atlantic Coast between Yatama, the FSLN and the Liberal Constitutionalist Party. Since the last elections in early 1994 on the Coast, the North Atlantic Region has been governed by an alliance between the FSLN, whose members have had control of the Regional Council, and Yatama, with control of the governor's office. Now however, the FSLN and the PLC are trying to remove Yatama from office, but it is unclear whether the PLC and the FSLN will then collaborate to form a regional government. 5. UCA students go on strike. The students of the Jesuit-run Central American University (UCA) were on strike last week in a protest against high tuition bills. University officials say that the bills were handed out due to "errors" in the application of tuition rates and have scheduled a series of meetings to explain the errors. The students, however, organized in the Nicaraguan National Students' Union (UNEN), are continuing the strike to demand more student representation on the UCA University Council. 6. Vigilante solutions supported in violations of children. Last week, during a 3:00am interrogation session of a suspected rapist in the District 4 Station of the Managua police, the suspect was shot in the mouth and killed by the police officer who was questioning him. According to the officer, Marvin Torrez, father of a daughter who is the same age as the victim of the alleged rapist, he "lost it" when the suspect began to insist that the rape victim, the suspect's eight year old step-daughter, had "asked for it." No one else was in the interrogation room to witness the incident. Torrez was immediately placed under arrest and the police officially condemned the abuse of power. Popular reaction, however, was much different as hundreds of Managua residents have crowded the police station and judicial offices demanding the release and even the promotion of Torrez. People were saying that it was about time something was done about rapists and child molesters since the judicial system many times allows even convicted rapists to be on the streets within a short amount of time. Other evidence is coming out, however, that the police officer who killed the alleged rapist may be the lover of the rape victim's mother, making possible another interpretation of the "heroism" of the officer in question. Meanwhile, the young abused girl has been placed in a foster home, due to the insistence of the mother that her now- deceased husband was innocent. Child abuse and rape seem to be on the increase in Nicaragua although it may well be that increased coverage in the communication media has made people more aware of the need to denounce these crimes. Recently a new special police station for crimes against women and children was opened in Ciudad Sandino outside Managua. Another tendency that has been highlighted by this case is that of vigilante justice. Several cases have been reported in the last several weeks of the local population taking justice into their own hands due to the inability of the local police force to control crime. (Barricada, June 17) 7. Norwegian ship runs aground off Corinto. A Norwegian registered boat carrying approximately 87 thousands barrels of diesel fuel and gasoline ran aground in front of the port of Corinto last week, pushed by strong winds as it navigated near the island of El Cardon. Officials feared a major ecological disaster when it was revealed that the front of the ship was stuck in a sand bank. High tides and a strong tug boat came to the rescue, however, and the oil spill was averted. (Barricada, June 17) 8. Police and Pellas against Subtiava The land of the Clarisa Cardenas Cooperative of the Indigenous Community of Subtiava was once again invaded by hundreds of policemen at 4:00am with express orders, supposedly from the Pellas family, to remove the cooperative's 600 head of cattle from the disputed land. According to Jose Antonio Amador Lacayo, Vice-President of the Cooperative, the Pellas family, owner of the nearby San Antonio sugar cane complex, is still trying to take over the 3,500 acres of land that have been in the possession of the Subtiava Indigenous Community for over 400 years. The cooperative was visited by members of the legal team of CENIDH, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, but they were unable to enter the disputed territory because of police barricades. (Barricada, June 17)